In a non-binding vote, 290 editors had asked for Geshuri to be removed.

The newest addition to the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees, Tesla VP of Human Resources Arnnon Geshuri, has stepped down just a few weeks after he was appointed.

Geshuri's appointment was immediately controversial with editors of the site. The controversy grew this weekend when Ashley Van Haeften, who goes by the username Fae on Wikipedia, initiated a non-binding "vote of no confidence", in which Wikipedia's volunteer editors asked the board to remove Geshuri. The vote was ultimately 290-22 in favor of Geshuri's removal.

Geshuri's decision was announced in an e-mail message written by current board Chair Patricio Lorente and Vice-chair Alice Wiegand. The message reads:

Throughout the discussion about the appointment of Arnnon Geshuri to the Board of Trustees, the Board has carefully listened to you and discussed internally. Earlier today, Arnnon decided to step down from the Board. To paraphrase his words, he doesn't want to be a distraction for the important discussions that the community and the Foundation need to face in the times to come. We want to thank Arnnon for his ongoing commitment and for helping us to move forward.

The Board Governance Committee is working to improve and update our selection processes before we fill the vacancy left by Arnnon’s departure. We are sorry for the distress and confusion this has caused to some in our community, and also to Arnnon.

Patricio and Alice

Geshuri's resignation comes a day after he posted a response to the vote, saying he was listening closely to the community's concerns. "That said, in my opinion, there are some misconceptions and there are mitigating considerations," he wrote.

Further Reading

The vote also spurred some editors to express more general dissatisfaction with the board and its policies. Editors brought up a range of concerns, including a perceived lack of transparency by the board.

Editors' concerns with Geshuri centered on a federal antitrust investigation and related class-action lawsuit that took place while he was an HR manager at Google. An e-mail exchange between Geshuri and then-Google CEO Eric Schmidt, revealed during court proceedings, described Geshuri firing a Google recruiter who had reached out to an Apple employee in violation of a "no poach" deal. The government said that deal was illegal. Google, Apple, and several other defendant companies settled charges brought by the Department of Justice in 2010 and paid $415 million last year to settle a class-action lawsuit.

The Geshuri controversy also came directly on the heels of the still-unexplained removal of James Heilman, a community-elected board member.

"I'm sorry that it took so much to encourage him to leave," said Van Haeften, the editor who initiated the no-confidence vote, speaking to Ars by telephone from London. "I wanted him to find a way to go gracefully, and this is not graceful."